MAGDEBURG: The Saudi man on trial in Germany for a deadly vehicle attack on a Christmas market last year said Tuesday that he had gone on hunger strike.
Taleb Jawad al-Abdulmohsen, a 51-year-old psychiatrist, has admitted ploughing a rented SUV through the market in the eastern city of Magdeburg on Dec 20, killing six people and wounding more than 300.
On Tuesday, the second day of the trial in which he has given at times rambling statements, he said that he had gone on a hunger strike, without a clear explanation as to why.
“I have been on a hunger strike since yesterday, I want to do it for three weeks,” he told the court.
Presiding judge Dirk Sternberg said that since Abdulmohsen has already given an opening statement, the trial could continue in his absence if the hunger strike means he cannot come to court.
“It is up to you whether you want to take part in proceedings or not,” Sternberg told the defendant.
On Monday the trial opened with prosecutors accusing Abdulmohsen of setting out “to kill a large number of people”, motivated by anger over “supposed insults and frustration.”
Abdulmohsen – a critic of Islam and an adherent of far-right views and radical conspiracy theories – also made an opening statement on Monday in which he admitted: “I am the one who drove the car.”
However, he expressed no remorse and the rest of his statement largely consisted of incoherent and unrelated diatribes about politicians, violence against women in Saudi Arabia, religious topics, and accusations that the Magdeburg police had covered up the truth.
The rampage, which followed a deadly truck attack on a Berlin Christmas market in 2016, provoked a heated debate about the security of the festive installations.
Some cities have cancelled the beloved winter tradition because of the cost of anti-terrorism measures.
On Monday, the mayor of Magdeburg, Simone Borris, told a council meeting that state authorities had refused permission for the city’s Christmas market to open for now due to security concerns.
Abdulmohsen’s trial is expected to run until at least March.
He faces six counts of murder and 338 counts of attempted murder and faces life in prison if convicted.–AFP
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